August 20, 2012

Okay,

So this week was okay. An elder that lives in my house, Elder Bledsoe, that is working in the same ward as me is having huge back problems (and it is not getting better nor are the Argentine doctors having much luck figuring out what's going on...) so we were doing splits almost every day with his companion, Elder Yarger, to help them out with their investigators that got baptized on Friday! However on Friday Elder Howard and I had to travel to General Pico to do a couple baptismal interviews for our District Leader, Elder Parra (who was with Elder Arias after I left Pehuajó), and things got complicated so we ended up getting back at 8:30 at night and missing the baptism! We were bummed seeing as we had helped teach them and had seen them in church every week. And then on Saturday, Elder Howard and I had made all the arrangements so that two small buses could take all 30 of us in La Pampa to Bahía Blanca. Twelve missionaries had to travel in from other cities and we all left together at 5 in the morning.

Elder Howard and I and all the other Zone Leaders (the Pehuajó zone, the two Bahía Blanca zones, and the Viedma zone) had an hour long meeting with President Parreño, his wife, and Elder Viñas, a Seventy of the First Quorum and Second Counselor of the South America South Area Presidency. It was fantastic. He is an ex-bishop, stake president, mission president, church educational system worker, and just about everything else possible. He, like Elder Arnold last year, had such a powerful and spiritual presence I could just immediately tell that he was a man called of God to preach His gospel. He spoke to us about how to help the missionaries in our zones to have success and to reach their goals. He helped us understand better certain points of doctrine, as well as explained about goal setting and the reason we do it. His knowledge of the scriptures and the gospel inspired me to keep studying and applying the doctrine in my life.

That was at 9 o’clock. Then at 10 o’clock, half the mission was crammed into one big cultural hall in the church building where the mission office is (home sweet home...haha) and we had a huge conference where the Assistants, President, Sister Parreño, and Elder Viñas spoke to us. Elder Viñas told us very clearly that his message was not his; that it was from God himself. He said that what he was going to teach us was exactly what President Monson had asked them to share and that as the representative of Jesus Christ on the earth in this moment, his inspired message was exactly what Heavenly Father wants us to hear right now. He spoke about the church growth in the South America South Area and about what we as missionaries can do to contribute to "real church growth." Let's be honest. I am in Santa Rosa which is a Stake, but technically according to the numbers doesn't even qualify to be one. He said he could count on his fingers how many stakes in the Area currently QUALIFY to be one!!! And it's true. So there is a lot of work to do.

Our ward is doing pretty good though! Our converts are going to church, Marcos Herrán blessed the sacrament on Sunday in his suit and everything, and his sister-in-law, Mónica, who Elder Howard and I are currently teaching is DEFINITELY going to get baptized in the next couple of weeks. She came to church yesterday dressed up in Sunday dress! We have a lesson set up with her and her already baptized children at 8 o’clock tonight and we are going to challenger her to get baptized. She'll accept.

Anyway other than that there isn't too much news because we had a pretty unproductive week with all the complications in our area/zone! Thanks for the letters! Please pray for Mónica and the Lucero family who didn't manage to get to church yesterday!

Chau,

Elder Garrison